More lives lost, unnecessarily!

The tragedy of so many lives lost in road accidents during the Eid holidays every year appears to be never-ending. Last year, at least 41 people were killed on the roads right after Eid in a span of only four days. And, this year, that figure reached at least 42 in the same number of days—the actual figure of casualties, of course, could likely be higher given that a number of accidents often go unreported. But no matter how many lives are lost and how many people are maimed or injured, it seems as if the losses don't bother the authorities much as they do nothing substantive to stop the death toll from piling up every year.

Meanwhile, the two main reasons for the large number of road accidents, as we have seen from newspaper reports, continue to be traffic mismanagement and reckless driving, in most instances, by bus drivers. On the one hand, the authorities refuse to take punitive actions against bus services and drivers, all the while leaving victims' families to pick up the costs of injuries all by themselves, on the other, in most cases. This has clearly created a culture of impunity because of which drivers recklessly try to overtake each other, leading to so many head-on collisions on roads and highways.

The only way to change this gruesome scenario is for the authorities to hold reckless drivers accountable. Therefore, we ask policymakers to shake off their apathy and take measures that would end the unnecessary loss of lives, once and for all.